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Mass. posts biggest annual job gains since 2000

The Lowell Sun

Posted:
03/06/2014 01:22:13 PM EST

By Matt Murphy

STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

BOSTON -- With its largest single-year jobs gain in 2013 since the dot-com boom, the Massachusetts economy has grown out of the recession, though the state's unemployment rate still hovers above the national average.

Massachusetts shed 4,500 jobs in January, but the state's employers added 55,200 jobs in 2013, the biggest annual gain since 2000 when the economy grew by 95,500 jobs.

The state finished January with an unemployment rate of 6.8 percent, according to data released Thursday morning, a drop from 7.1 percent a month earlier, but still higher than the 6.6 percent national average.

"Massachusetts added 55,200 jobs in 2013 which is the largest job growth in a single year in nearly 15 years and represents a continuing trend of significant job gains the last four years," Gov. Deval Patrick said Thursday morning during a conference call where he said the employment gains were evidence that his strategy of investing in education, infrastructure and innovative businesses is working.

According to labor and economic development officials, the recorded job growth last year answered a question in the minds of those monitoring economic growth about whether the state's job market would continue to expand after clawing back from the loss of jobs during the recession.

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The largest recorded growth came in the professional, scientific and business services sector where 13,500 jobs were added over the year, while the construction trades were the only sector to post a job loss of 1,200 in 2013.

Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Rachel Kaprielian said the state has added 195,000 jobs since job levels bottomed out in October 2009, and the workforce now counts 61,700 more jobs than its previous "high-water mark pre-recession."

Housing and Economic Development Secretary Greg Bialecki said it wasn't until around the beginning of last year that the state fully recovered the jobs lost during the recession, but the new statistics show that 237,100 people still cannot find work.

"For our state, it's particularly exciting that we had such strong growth in 2013 because it means we are moving beyond a simple recovery, we are getting beyond getting back what we lost, and moving into new territory," Bialecki said.

House Minority Leader Brad Jones said some monthly unemployment rates over the past year were revised upward, raising questions about the accuracy of numbers as they are released.

"I don't think too much can be read into these. There's a recurring frustration that the numbers continue to bounce all over the place," he said. "If the administration wants to touts their accuracy then the most recent numbers show we lost 4,500 in January. Is one month a trend? Hopefully we won't see that continue."

Jones also said the job numbers might not take into account the number of people who lost good jobs during the recession and may now be reemployed, but have had to settle.

"How much of this is underemployment and people who were trained but taking any jobs they can get that maybe they didn't go to school for?" Jones said. "I don't sense that everything is as rosy and headed in the right direction as they would want you to think in these numbers."

Patrick said the state's economy, despite its higher unemployment rate, is growing faster than the national economy, posting a growth rate of twice the national average in the fourth quarter of last year. The governor also said single-family home sales in January reached their highest number since 2007.

Despite the "very encouraging news," Patrick said, "At the same time I know not every community and every household is feeling the effect of the recovery just yet and we want to keep going."

Seasonally unadjusted unemployment rates in December were above 10 percent in Pittsfield, New Bedford and the Lawrence-Methuen-Salem areas.

In an analysis posted on the group's website, Associated Industries of Massachusetts Senior Advisor Andre Mayer wrote that employment reports tend to "suffer from small sample size and show more fluctuation than is really there."

"The Massachusetts economy has been doing pretty well. The reported January job loss may signal a slowdown, but it may just as well be statistical error from the survey or seasonal adjustment, or simply a result of bad weather," he wrote.

Mayer said the household survey used as a basis for the unemployment rate is "particularly unreliable" and shows less job creation than the monthly survey of employers, which he said is consistent with the more accurate benchmark of unemployment insurance data published quarterly.

The economy dropped 4,500 jobs in January, according to preliminary statistics that could be revised next month, with the biggest loss coming in the trade, transportation and utilities sector where jobs were down by 6,700, or 1.2 percent from month to month.

Job losses were also absorbed in government, professional, scientific and business services, and manufacturing in January.

Over the past year, the unemployment rate has fallen just a tenth of a point from 6.9 percent in January 2013, and Kaprielian said that the revised rates show an average unemployment rate of 7.1 percent for the year, with a high of 7.2 percent in several months.

Bialecki said he interpreted the still high unemployment rate despite strong job growth numbers as evidence that a lot of people were deciding to stay in Massachusetts and hunt for work rather than leaving the state or dropping out of the labor pool.

"People are staying here. People are coming here," he said.

Patrick said advanced manufacturing has made a "very strong comeback" in western Massachusetts, the Pioneer Valley and the Merrimack Valley around Lowell.

Bialecki said the jobs being created are not just a blend of well-paying professional jobs that require advanced degrees and minimum wage work, but also "middle-skills" jobs that may require some additional post-high school training but not a four-year degree.

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